1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to timepieces having rotary parts to indicate time. Some rotary timepieces incorporate hour, minute, and sometimes second indicators which are moved, wherein the time is indicated by the hour, minute, sometimes the second, within a particular region. Other rotary time pieces incorporate hour, minute, and sometimes second indicators which are stationary while the moving parts are pointers to indicate the hour, minute, and sometimes the seconds.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Rotary timepieces having hour, minute, and second indicators use moving parts to indicate the hour, minute, and second of the day at any particular time. Such time pieces require the user to read the time indicated using the judgement of the user to visually delineate a particular region of the hour, minute, and second indicators being addressed by the moving parts.
U.S. Pat. No. 312,754 issued Feb. 24, 1885 to Josef Pallweber discloses a timepiece in which the hour and minutes are indicated by rotating plates with the present time read through a window above part of the plates.
U.S. Pat. No. 864,467 issued Aug. 27, 1907 to Henry C. Ingraham discloses rotating hour, minute, and seconds plates to indicate the time as indicated by a fixed marker.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,533,228 issued Oct. 13, 1970 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,686,884 issued Aug. 29, 1972, both to Zeno Hurt disclose rotating hour, minute, and seconds plates to indicate the time as demonstrated by a particular hour of a certain color showing through a window over the rotating hour plate, a particular minute of a certain color showing through a window over the rotating minute plate, and a particular second of a certain color showing through a window over the rotating seconds plate.
None of the prior art just discussed discloses the use of a rotating minute plate and hour plate, wherein a portion of the minute plate shows through a window and the time of day is indicated by the hour indicator on the hour plate in the vicinity of the window, while the minute of the hour is indicated by the minute in the window closest to that hour indicator.